Florence Soulé de Lafont is a partner inHeidrick & Struggles’ Paris office and a member of the global Financial Services Practice.

With 10 years of experience in executive search, Florence has completed a wide range of senior-level searches across the financial services sector with a focus on corporate and investment banking, global markets, and investment management.

Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Florence was managing director at a major global search firm where she led the Financial Services Practice in Paris. Capitalizing on her 20 years of pan-European operational experience in investment banking, she has successfully recruited leaders in a variety of functions at the highest executive and management levels within investment banks, commercial banks, and asset management companies.

Prior to her executive search career, Florence held top management positions in investment banking with Caisse des Dépots (then IXIS-CIB). She started as a bond portfolio manager, then became head of interest rate derivative products. As director of research and development for Caisse Autonome de Refinancement (a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépots), she led securitization, quant research modeling, complex product evaluation and hedging. She was subsequently appointed by CDC to set up its structured and syndicated financing business, and became managing director for funding activities and member of the IXIS-CIB executive board.

Education:

A graduate of French Graduate School of Statistics and Economic Sciences (ENSAE), Florence earned a master’s degree in international finance from HEC-ISA. She also holds a diploma from the Institute of French Actuaries and a higher diploma in financial analysis from French Society of Financial Analysts (SFAF). She is fluent in English and French.